UK billionaire whose family trust owns Tottenham soccer club pleads not guilty to insider trading

NEW YORK: Joe Lewis, the British billionaire whose family trust owns the Tottenham Hotspur soccer club, pleaded not guilty in New York on Wednesday to insider trading charges alleging that he fed corporate secrets to romantic partners, personal assistants, friends and his pilots, earning them millions of dollars illegally.

Lewis was released on $300 million bail, using a yacht and private plane as collateral, after he entered the plea in Manhattan federal court. Two of his pilots, Patrick O’Connor and Bryan ‘Marty’ Waugh, also pleaded not guilty to related charges and were each released on $250,000 bail.

All three must remain in the US.

US Attorney Damian Williams, who announced the charges Tuesday night in a video, said Lewis was accused of “orchestrating a brazen insider trading scheme” that utilized his access to corporate boardrooms to feed inside tips to friends and lovers.

“Those folks then traded on that inside information — and made millions of dollars in the stock market — because, thanks to Lewis, those bets were a sure thing,” Williams said. “That’s classic corporate corruption. It’s cheating. And it’s against the law — laws that apply to everyone, no matter who you are.”

David M. Zornow, an attorney for Lewis, said his client had come to the US “to answer these ill-conceived charges” and would fight them vigorously.

“The government has made an egregious error in judgment in charging Mr. Lewis, an 86-year-old man of impeccable integrity and prodigious accomplishment,” Zornow said in a statement Tuesday.

Wearing a gray three-piece suit, Lewis said, “Not guilty, your honor,” when asked for his plea. He and his lawyers declined to comment as they left court and hailed a yellow cab.

Lawyers for the pilots